01. Malcolm Arnold - Tam O'Shanter Overture, op.55 [7'59]
02. Modest Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel) - Gnomus from 'Pictures at an Exhibition' [2'38]
03. Modest Mussorgsky (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov) - A Night on the Bare Mountain [11'19]
04. Camille Saint-Saens - Danse macabre, op.40[7'07]
05. Engelbert Humperdinck - Witch's Ride from 'Hansel and Gretel' [4'12]
06. Franz Liszt - Mephisto Waltz No.1 [10'51]
07. *Charles Gounod - Funeral March of a Marionette [4'37]
08. - 14. *Charles Gounod - Faust. Ballet Music [16'16]
New Symphony Orchestra of London and *Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden conducted by Alexander Gibson
Decca Eloquence Australia 442 9985 (recorded December 1957 and *February 1959; CD issued 2008)
(flac and scans)
Recording venue: Kingsway Hall, London
Recording engineers: Kenneth Wilkinson and Alan Reeve; Producers: Erik Smith and *Ray Minshull
These are more recordings originally made by the Decca production team in Kingsway Hall for RCA but where the rights have now reverted to Decca. The Witches Brew LP was a famous 'audiophile' favourite and became difficult to track down and very expensive before this CD release. The equally fine Gounod recordings were added for the CD release and are here issued for the first time on CD.
It wasn't just the superb recording quality that made the original release famous; Sir Alexander Gibson's performances were also considered top notch. More recently, it seems to have become fashionable to denigrate the performances but I still find them excellent.
It's a very entertaining collection and the Eloquence remastering is first class. The New Symphony Orchestra of London was something of a 'pick-up' orchestra put together for recording purposes and contained many of London's top orchestral musicians of the time.
The Gounod items were coupled on LP with a suite from Bizet's Carmen which has also appeared on a different Eloquence disc, 480 6620, coupled with more Bizet conducted by Lorin Maazel.
02. Modest Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel) - Gnomus from 'Pictures at an Exhibition' [2'38]
03. Modest Mussorgsky (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov) - A Night on the Bare Mountain [11'19]
04. Camille Saint-Saens - Danse macabre, op.40[7'07]
05. Engelbert Humperdinck - Witch's Ride from 'Hansel and Gretel' [4'12]
06. Franz Liszt - Mephisto Waltz No.1 [10'51]
07. *Charles Gounod - Funeral March of a Marionette [4'37]
08. - 14. *Charles Gounod - Faust. Ballet Music [16'16]
New Symphony Orchestra of London and *Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden conducted by Alexander Gibson
Decca Eloquence Australia 442 9985 (recorded December 1957 and *February 1959; CD issued 2008)
(flac and scans)
Recording venue: Kingsway Hall, London
Recording engineers: Kenneth Wilkinson and Alan Reeve; Producers: Erik Smith and *Ray Minshull
These are more recordings originally made by the Decca production team in Kingsway Hall for RCA but where the rights have now reverted to Decca. The Witches Brew LP was a famous 'audiophile' favourite and became difficult to track down and very expensive before this CD release. The equally fine Gounod recordings were added for the CD release and are here issued for the first time on CD.
It wasn't just the superb recording quality that made the original release famous; Sir Alexander Gibson's performances were also considered top notch. More recently, it seems to have become fashionable to denigrate the performances but I still find them excellent.
It's a very entertaining collection and the Eloquence remastering is first class. The New Symphony Orchestra of London was something of a 'pick-up' orchestra put together for recording purposes and contained many of London's top orchestral musicians of the time.
The Gounod items were coupled on LP with a suite from Bizet's Carmen which has also appeared on a different Eloquence disc, 480 6620, coupled with more Bizet conducted by Lorin Maazel.
